1 Corinthians and we'll start in chapter 1. I think we kind of need to have
an understanding of the context of this letter that Paul has
written to the Corinthian church. We are gathering this morning
to observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper together. It's
actually been a little while since we've done that and as I always like to do whenever
we have the Lord's Supper is to reflect not only what the
Lord's Supper is all about, what we are gathering for, reflecting
upon the work of Jesus Christ, but also to reflect about the
biblical teaching of the Lord's Supper and why we believe some
of the things that we believe about that. And so this morning
for just a little bit, we'll talk about that and then Later
on in our service, we will actually begin to read about the things
that Jesus has done for us in his crucifixion and his death,
burial and resurrection for us. But right now I'd like us to
talk a little bit about what we believe and why we believe
the things that we believe about the Lord's Supper. In Corinthians,
the first chapter, we see Paul is writing a letter to the church
that is in Corinth. And so the church that is in
Corinth was the recipient of this. There was some things going
on at Corinth in that local church that, was being heard widely
around and had gotten back to Paul and Paul was writing a letter
that was a letter of correction, condemnation for what they were
doing and how they had veered away from the things that he
had handed down to them from Jesus Christ. And so, As we look
at the whole thing of the Lord's supper and there's more in Corinthians
besides just the Lord's supper. Paul corrects them on many things,
but knowing going into this is this is a letter of correction
and it's a correction, not of men's tradition, not of. what
Paul thinks ought to be done, but it's a correction because
Paul had been given specific details of what Christ commanded
and demanded for the local assembly to follow, and that was handed
down to these Corinthian churches. We've seen that in In Acts, we've
seen that the Lord, or excuse me, in Matthew, we've seen that
the Lord give the certain things to the church before he ascended
back to heaven, and he commanded commanded them as a group of
people to carry out these things in this corporate manner, and
that in doing so, they were to make disciples, and in making
disciples, they were to baptize them and then to bring them back
and teach them all the things that Christ had commanded them
And then that would perpetuate throughout the centuries as this
reciprocity would take place. And so that's how it's been through
from generation to generation. That's why we believe that the
true churches of Jesus Christ, the new Testament churches have
never ceased to exist from the time of Christ until now. They didn't go belly up and then
all this, you know, Roman Catholic Church came and that was the
church for many, many years. Then all of a sudden some reformers
brought the church out of Roman Catholicism and heresy. No, the
Lord has had his churches in every generation. There has been
a gospel witness and gospel ordinances in every generation from the
time of Christ when he instituted those with that first local church.
And so we hold to these ordinances, we hold to these things, and
some of the things that we hold to, we don't hold to because
they're man's traditions. People can accuse us of holding
to man's traditions because we follow and talk about what people
before us did, but it has nothing to do with whether the Baptist
of the 1689 or the 1646 or the 1500s or the 1412s or the 1300s
or the 11s or the 900s or whatever. It has nothing to do with we're
doing it because they did it, They did it and we do it because
the head of our church, not me, not a pastor, not an elder board,
not a group of elders. The head of the church is Jesus
Christ. And he's the one who laid down
these things and said, these are the things that I want you
to observe. This is how I want you to observe them. And so we
follow those because the head of our church has told us this
is what he wants us to do. And so we follow those. And so
the apostles specifically because they were the ones that was most
close to Jesus in the teaching and the instructing. And then
that first church who bore witness of those teachings that was handed
to the apostles was not only taught those things by Jesus,
but then as the church was dispersed sovereignly by God, not by Rome,
by the way, sovereignly by God was dispersed because The whole
entire intent was to take this not only to Jerusalem, but to
the Gentiles. Matter of fact, God even told
them the plan that this was gonna begin first in Jerusalem and
then Samaria, then to the other most parts of the world. So that
wasn't just by accident. That wasn't by man's evil demise
of the Jewish Zion-Israel, okay? This was God's design that the
gospel would be spread. It had a purpose in Israel for
a time. And God ended that purpose at
the time that he chose and with Christ's death and burial and
resurrection and ultimately his ascension. The gospel was spread
to all the parts of the world, and all the parts of the world
have received that gospel, and he has people in every nation,
tribe, tongue. And so he has and elect people
from out of every one of those. And every one of those people,
they make up the family of God, they make up The church that
will be in glory that will all be gathered around the world. But in this time during this
time that what we will see in glory. is shown and evident in
the individual local assemblies. That's why we gather together.
And Christ give these ordinances, He give these things to the local
assembly to observe as a picture, as a remembrance, as a reminder,
as service that we do for Him in these things. Just as in the
Old Testament, they had ordinances and service work in the tabernacle,
we as the New Testament gathered assembly whenever we gathered
together. Christ has given us things of service. mainly service
to one another, but he's given us things to do. He's given us
leadership within the gathered assembly, in pastors and deacons. He's given us the gifts of the
Holy Spirit that every one of us who are children of God have
received for the edifying of one another. And so there is
this mutual working that the gathered assembly was designed
for, and Jesus gave these things as the service in that, just
like he did in the Old Testament, where he gave them specific things
and he was so specific about how to carry these out And even
today in the ordinances that he's given us, we believe that
that specificness needs to be followed, not as legalism, but
because that's what Christ has carried and he's told us to do
that. And he's reiterated that in the scriptures when we see
that Peter and Paul both have declared that things were given
to them by Christ and they handed it down as they heard it From
Christ and give it that way and that's why it should be followed.
So it doesn't have nothing to do You know what we believe about
church baptism about About the Lord's Supper isn't about legalism
We know that legalism that following the law doesn't save anybody
or make anybody righteous. We know that and It's about following
Christ in service. It's proper service to the Lord
that he has designed the way he wants to be served, the way
he wants to be remembered, the way that he wants people to be.
ushered in or brought into that local congregation. It's about
what he has designed, not about what we think or about anything.
That's why I say we can't get dove into so much tradition that
we lose sight of what was actually said in the scriptures. And I've
been guilty of that in the past, just as I'm sure anybody else
does. We all have our traditions that we've grown up listening
to. And it gets so infiltrated into our mind that sometimes
we press those traditions onto the word of God. But we need
to let the word of God lead us because Christ is the head of
the church and we should follow as he has designed and as he
has dictated. So it doesn't have anything to
do with being righteous or being legalistic. It has everything
to do with wanting to be a proper servant Following Christ as our
head serving him in humility and serving him as we have been
called to do And so that's what the gathered assembly is about.
Not only is it about worship, but it is about service to the
Lord and it's proper service. So everything that we talk about,
whether it be membership, and really I can't find where there
is a formal type membership in the scriptures. I do believe
that there is, not the term membership, but I do believe that there is
a sort of covenanted together, a gathered assembly of people
who know each other, are accountable to each other and responsible
for each other. That the Bible teaches that very,
very clear. And it is a definite group of
people that is there. The Bible says that the names
and numbers were there. They knew who that was among
them that they were gathered and accompanied with. They knew
who they was accountable to and responsible for. They knew who
their leadership was and wasn't. They knew that. So the gathered
assembly had these things. And so Christ, in every place
where God's people are gathered in their gatherings, their physical
gatherings, they are a body of Christ. They are the church gathered. And that church has been given
these ordinances and are responsible for these ordinances and keeping
them like Christ has given them to us. See, it isn't just the
preacher's responsibility as the overseer to make sure that
these things are done, but it's also everybody else's because
the church is one body. And we, as we function together
as one body in all of the facets as God has placed us together
jointly here, then we are fulfilling and doing the things that Christ
has called us to do. And edifying ourselves, worshiping
God, working the works of service to God in the proper way that
he has done. And so our desire in all of this
is not to just be a bunch of rules that we have to follow
or some sort of liturgy. You know, I despise liturgy.
I can't stand liturgy. I can't hack all that, you know,
pomp and circumstance type stuff. It's all about proper service
to the Lord. Honestly, before God saying,
you know, as far as I can tell from the word of God, this is
what you called us to do and how to do it. And so we're going
to do it in obedience to your command. And so I pray that that's
how we understand these things, brethren, and not that we do
it because of some creed or some confession. Those are not our
rules of faith. Our rules of faith and order
are the word of God. And what does the word of God
say? Now in Corinthians Paul, he has began this letter and
he says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with
all that in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. So what he's writing
to that church in Corinth, also has precedence on every local
church That's there, it's out there that calls upon the name
of the Lord Jesus as their head. This is, this is the same thing.
What he's telling them, he said, I'm writing this specifically
to Corinth because this is the problem at hand is the Corinth
church, but Ephesus. Philadelphia, Pergamos, Thyatira,
wherever else, ditto to you as well, okay? What I'm writing
here goes for you guys as well, according to Christ. But he says here, if you look,
we'll see, he says in verse 10, now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the
same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that
ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. So Paul here is opening up this
letter before he even gets in to the condemning and judgment
upon what they've done wrong and the correcting, he is reminding
them that one thing that is true about a local assembly that comes
together, a gathered congregation, a New Testament church, is that
there are no divisions They are perfectly joined together in
the same mind and same judgment. What's he mean by that? What's
one word that we can use that covers all that? He's speaking of unity. There
is a unity there. The Corinthian church and what
he's about to go in and correct him, has destroyed, and what
they were doing has destroyed the one thing that should be
evident of all New Testament churches, and that is doctrinal
and spiritual unity. There should be doctrinal unity
and spiritual unity among the brethren. If there is discord
among the brethren, if there's unlove between the brethren,
if there's doctrinal discord among the brethren, they are
not united together. And then if that's the case,
then there is no grounds for them to come to the Lord's table
together and commune. You cannot have communion if
there is not a common union. And that's what the Lord's Table
is teaching them. Now, it does teach us about what
Christ has done, but there's a couple of other things that
the Lord's Table was designed to do. If you remember before
the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, he washed the feet of
the disciples and showed that no one is above the other and
that all of them should serve one another in love. and that
there should be a unity among them. He talked about his love
for them. Right after the Lord's Supper,
he went out into the garden and he prayed about the unity of
them and him and the Father. And so there is one thing that
is very evident in the New Testament church, and that is the fact
is there needs to be unity. Now I'll just say growing up,
when the Lord's Supper was taken, the Lord's Supper was offered
to anybody and anyone. If they came in and you didn't
know them, it was just offered to them. If there was all kinds
of skirmishes going on, sister so-and-so was mad at sister so-and-so
in here, and they hadn't talked in four months, and this sister
refused to go into that class with that sister, and this guy
over here, he doesn't like so-and-so, and so he's gonna not talk to
him, whatever the case might be, or open adultery within the
church. I've seen that, actually, where
there were people in the church, members of the local church,
who were having extramarital affairs, or was having, out of
wedlock, both of them being out of marriage, having fornication,
and it's all right, we all just come together and we all get
along as long as we love Jesus. Long as we're called Christians,
Paul here has said, that can't be. And he goes into Corinthians
and begins to look at many facets that can come under disunity. Whether it be spiritual gifts,
whether it be headship, whether it be Lord's Supper, all these
things flow out of disunity. Why? Because whenever a person
is born again. And see, that's the key. That's
why Baptists, for all these centuries, has believed in what is called
a quickened membership. That the people that come together
as the gathered assembly, that one of the prerequisites to that
fellowship is that one be born again. What fellowship hath light
with darkness? What fellowship have the one
married with the one who's a fornicator? Okay? We don't have that relationship. And so I know a lot of people
say, you guys put too much restriction and you cut people out and all
like that. Brother, the Bible does that, not us. The Bible
does that. We only go as far as the Bible
does. That doesn't mean we just kick people out as they come.
But if they come and we begin to learn that they are not of
us, if they are not doctrinally in unity with us, spiritually
in unity with us, if they are not showing that they show any
signs of being born again, then we're to put them out. And God
told us to do, Jesus told us to do that. Why? Two reasons. One is if they aren't of us,
they need to be out so that leaven doesn't leaven the whole lump.
Second, if they are of us, that that is Christ means of crucifying
the flesh in that person or killing the flesh in that person to drive
them back to us. So see, we can't improve upon
what Christ has laid down. So the discipline of the church
is what Paul is dealing with when he writes to the Corinthian
church. And whenever we talk about the Lord's table, there
is discipline involved in the Lord's table. And so that's why
we come to hold the Lord's table as we have come to hold it, is
because there is discipline. And we'll look at that as we
go along. But I wanted you to see that. He starts out with
the issue of unity. There has to be unity. Look,
if you would, at, well, let's just go ahead and read on down.
He said, for it had been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you. Now this I say, that every one
of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of
Cephas, and I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? So see, Paul is talking about
here, there is division that can come up and cause disunity. Now, just a side note there,
you see he says that one of the things that brought contention
is I'm of Paul, and I'm of Paulus, and I'm of Cephas. Let's put
those in modern day terms. Well, I'm of a MacArthur, I'm
of Piper, I'm of Beebe, I'm of Gill, or I'm of the 1689, I'm
of the 1646, I'm of the New Hampshire. You see how those easily can
begin to divide? See, whenever we go to men or we go to writings
of men for our thus saith the Lord, we lose the thus saith
the Lord and we get the spin of the man. This right here is
the only thing that was actually pinned by men that we can actually
trust because it was governed by God and the Holy Spirit inspired
those men to write the things that God said. And so these are
the only things that we can actually trust, brethren. And so let's
not look to this thing or that thing or this thing. We may have
highly respected preachers that we love, even family members. And they just like anybody else
can fall prey to falling into the traditions of men and not
following the word of God. and having their minds deceived
that those traditions are the word of God. But we gotta lay every tradition
to the scrutiny of the word of God. And so that's what Paul
is there to do, is he is to lay the scrutiny to some of these
actions that these Corinthians were doing. Look, if you would,
over to chapter four. Look at verse 16. Paul says,
wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Now this isn't
an arrogant, egotistic Paul saying, I'm the man, you do what I do
and you'll be all right. Okay. That's not the intent.
What Paul is saying is I was giving things by Christ to give
to you. And so if you will follow me
as I'm giving those things to you, then you're gonna be fine
because what I'm giving you is what Christ said. So follow what
I'm telling you, follow what I'm doing. He says, for this
cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful
in the Lord. Okay, so Timotheus not only was
one who Paul had ministered unto and the Lord had brought into
conversion under the ministry of Paul, But Paul here and the
Holy Spirit says that Timotheus was faithful in the Lord. He
was faithful to the things that the Lord had done or said in
the gospel. And he says, and faithful in
the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways?
So it had gotten so bad at Corinth that Paul sent Timothy as an
ambassador so to speak, to the church in Corinth to remind them
in person, hey, this is what Christ said. You remember Paul
taught this to you guys? This is what Christ said. You're
not following what Christ said. And so he sent Timothy to bring
them into remembrance of the ways that Paul had brought to
them in the past. And now look, it says, who shall
bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ as
I teach everywhere in every church. See, there's distinctions from
church to church to church. It's not just one big church,
it's churches. I teach it in this church, I
teach it in this church. So what he taught to observe
in this church, he taught to observe in this church, which
goes back to what he said in chapter one at the very beginning,
that this is for the Corinthian church, but this is also for
all those who are gathered in the name of Jesus Christ, who
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, wherever they may be, wherever
they gather. Because we know that a church is a gathered assembly. And so he teaches this in every
church. This is the perpetuating of what
Christ taught. This is the perpetuating of Matthew
chapter 28, where Jesus said, teach them to observe all things
whatsoever I've commanded until he returns. Whenever he give
the Lord supper, he said, do this in remembrance of me until
I come again. And so Paul is doing that as
the apostle born out of due time. He is following that in the Gentile
churches just as Peter had been doing that and the other apostles
had been doing that among the Jewish churches. Now Paul has
been out doing this among these churches and he has handed this
down. Look down in verse five. He says,
and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that
hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. Now,
remember, there was a man who committed fornication. Matter
of fact, in verse one, it says that this fornication was such
fornication that it is not as much as named among the Gentiles
that one should have his father's wife. He said, what this guy's
doing, as a quote unquote brother of Christ in Christ is something
that isn't even recognized as being good in the eyes of the
heathen. I mean even heathen don't practice
that and here's a guy that's among you that's doing this open
fornication and this particular fornication and you've not done
anything about it. Where is the condemnation coming
to? Well, we know that he condemned
the man because he already said that he's already dealt with
that man. But where's the condemnation
coming to? The condemnation is coming to the local church who
did not discipline that member. who did not discipline that one
that was among them, who called themselves brothers, but had
open sin. They did not do anything about
it. They sat back and said, well, that's none of my business. Well,
Jesus died for our sins. All our sins are covered. We're
all sinners. We sin daily. Well, who am I
to say anything to him? Because I'm just as guilty of
sin as he is. We all sin. None of us are righteous.
None of us are perfect. No one has come to obtain. Whatever
the phrases may be, we all use those things to back away from
the responsibility that Christ has given us in the gathered
assembly to edify, build up, and to correct, rebuke, reprove,
See, that's just as much as important as in teaching and correcting
and instructing in righteousness is reproving, rebuking and examining
each other and coming to them and to, if need be, remove them
from the gathered assembling. He says, and you are puffed up
and have not mourned that he hath not done this deed, might
be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body
but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and here it is, When ye are gathered together,
again, there's the gathering together, that's the church,
when you gather together. When ye gather together, and
my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver
such a one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, and
the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So that
is Christ's way of dealing with this sort of thing. If he is
not, then deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. If he is Christ, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this isn't
done by the pastor, by the way, brethren. It isn't the pastor's
job to go detail everybody's life. It says, when you gather
together, See, that's one of the reasons why we believe in
the government of congregation. Not by one man, not by a board
of elders. but by a gathered assembly. And if you look in Acts, that
is very prominent in Acts. You'll see that it was the gathered
assembly that made the decisions. Not one man, not one apostle,
not one elder board, not one group of elders that have been
picked out. The elders and the apostles all
was under submission to the congregation because God had gathered that
congregation together to be one body with one head. Only one head. The pastor's not
the head, the elder boards are not the head. The congregation
is one body with the one head, Jesus Christ. And so whenever
we come together, church discipline is a church work. It's a gathered assembly work. He says in verse 6, Your glory
is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle
not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators
of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters,
For then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have
written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called
a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or
a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one
know not eat. For what have I to do to judge
them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within. See, there is
a precedence where the congregation judges within itself. We don't
judge that which is out, we judge those that are within. But them that are without, God
judges. Therefore, put away among yourselves
that wicked person. And so we see that One of the
things to keep unity, whether doctrinal or spiritual, is that
we must discipline those who fall under these things that
Christ has commanded. Those who are walking disorderly,
who are walking outside of repentance. We all know that the Bible says
that he has granted to us repentance. When a child of grace sins, they
don't want to stay there, they repent. But if you have one who
calls himself a brother in Christ, or sister in Christ, and they
continue to walk disorderly with no repentance, and they continue
in there, especially after we go to them with the first admonition,
the second admonition, the third admonition, and bringing them
before the church, and they don't repent, then we have no choice
but to do what Christ has commanded and put them out from us. No
matter how precious they are to us, no matter how much we
love them, no matter how much they contributed to us, we must
put them out for their sake and for our sake. We must put them
out. So there is an aspect of discipline
that always revolves around the gathered assembly. There is discipline
that always is part of the ordinances of the gathered assembly as well. Look in chapter 10, if you would,
and look at verse 16. It says, the cup of blessing
which we bless is not the communion, excuse me, the cup of blessing
which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? Okay, so the cup and
the bread represent the communion that we have, okay, of the body
of Christ. So there is a communing here,
okay? And a lot of people get this
wrong. They think that the Lord's Supper
is our communing with Christ. The Lord's Supper is the communion
of the body of Christ and the remembrance of Christ. It's a memorial to Christ and
a communion of His body together. Now, do we communion with Christ?
Absolutely, we communion with Christ every time we come together
because He's promised to meet with us. If we are a New Testament
church, He has promised to meet with us wherever two or three
are gathered in His name. He's promised to be there with
us. but the communing of the Lord's
table was given to the local assembly for communion among
themselves to remember what Christ had done for them. So we see
that the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is a communion of bread
and wine among the communion of the body of Christ. So first
and foremost we say to anybody that's not, that should not be
taking of the Lord's table. Verse 17, for we being many are
one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one
bread. So he's saying, whenever we gather together in this assembly,
here we are. You know, eight people, six people
here. We are many, but we form one
body and one bread. We are one bread. Do you notice
that? That he says that the gathered
assembly here, that we are one bread and one body. Look at verse 18. Behold Israel
after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers
of the altar? What say I then that the idol
is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols
is anything? But I say that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to
God. And I would not that ye should
have fellowship with devils. Verse 21, ye cannot drink the
cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. Ye cannot be partakers
of the Lord's table and of the tables of devils. So there is
a judgment, there is an examination that must take place because
we do not partake with the ones who are partaking of the table
of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than He? Look down, if you would, at chapter
11, verse 1. It says, Be ye followers of me,
even as I also am of Christ. Again, Paul is saying, follow
what I do, but again, remember, it's not Paul in the flesh, Paul
as the man, Paul as somebody, that you're following. You're
following me as I follow Christ. I'm showing you what Christ has
told you, what Christ has given to us to tell you, and what you
are to follow. It's Christ's business, not mine. I'm just the messenger relaying
these things, giving you the things whatsoever Christ has
commanded. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that
ye remember me in all things. and keep the ordinances as I
delivered them to you." So there was a way that the ordinances
were delivered that they were to keep. So, you know, whenever
we just say, well, it doesn't matter, you know, anyway's fine,
anything's fine. No, because Paul was specifically
dealing here now with the Lord's table. He's going in chapter
11. He's going to deal with the Lord's table here. And he's saying,
I delivered these ordinances as Jesus told me to tell you
to do them. And yet you've veered away from this. And so I'm here
to set it straight again in a letter, and I've sent Timotheus, who
came in the flesh, to tell you what was to remind you. So you've
got two witnesses here, one by Timothy, and actually two by
me, mine in person, one in letter, and now by Timothy, you have
three witnesses of what Christ has said. And so he goes into
telling them that they have a problem. He says, Look down in verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto
you, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better,
but for the worse. Again, there's this issue of
coming together. The church has always come together. Okay, that's what the church
is. It's a gathered assembly. It's not a spread out assembly.
It's a gathered assembly. He says, That when you come together,
not for the better, but for the worse. So he's saying whenever
you're gathering together, you're gathering together, saying that
you're gathering together as a church, but whenever you're
doing it, you're not doing it the way that the church was told
to do it. You're not functioning as the church. was doing, your
service to the Lord and how He commanded you to serve Him as
that gathered assembly, when you gather as that assembly,
you're not doing that. So whenever you don't do that,
then you're not the church. He says, verse 18, for first
of all, Again, when you come together in the church, he didn't
say as the church, he said when you come together in the church,
meaning in the gathered assembly, not the building, the church
isn't a building, the church is a gathered group of baptized
born again people. When you come together in the
church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly
believe it. For there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you." So he's saying it doesn't surprise me that divisions
have come up, That doesn't mean be lackadaisical and just let
them be there. But he's saying the reason God has sent divisions
is so that the word of God, those who stand upon the word of God,
who hold to the word of God, that that right there, that those
who are approved among you may be made manifest among you. So
that those who are preaching heresy are holding to unbiblical
things may be made manifest versus those who are holding to what
scripture has taught. That way you can distinguish
who's the church of God and who's not the church of God. Those
who are not holding to what the Scriptures hold cannot be called
the church of God. If I went down to McDonald's
and said, I want a Whopper, they're going to look at me crazy and
say, hey fella, get down the road, we're not Burger King.
I said, well, it's all the same. I mean, you've got a grill back
there. You've got hamburger meat back there. You make hamburgers,
right? Well, I want a Whopper. Yes, but we're not Burger King. If you want Burger King, go to
Burger King. Why? Because Burger King has
a certain standard, has a certain way that they were set up so
that they would be different than McDonald's. Burger King
looks like McDonald's, it's fast food, it's got a drive-thru,
it's got pop, it's got hamburgers, but it's not McDonald's. Why?
Because it isn't following the same set of standards, the same
set of rules, the same menu as the other one. And so while they
may look the same, they aren't the same. And I couldn't expect
to go into McDonald's and get a Whopper. And so the same thing
is true here. We see we can't expect to go
into a gathered assembly that doesn't have the Gospel, that
doesn't have the ordinances, the way Jesus give them down,
and expect to have the church. I mean, there's a lot of people,
gathered assemblies around here. So it isn't just a gathered assembly
that's a gathered assembly. It's a gathered assembly with
specific characteristics. It has the gospel and it has
the ordinances. It has the commands that Christ
has commanded and are continuing to follow those commands. Now
someone could say you're being legalistic in that. But let me
ask you, is it being legalistic to follow the commands of Christ?
If you think that's legalistic, I guess I'm going to have to
part ways. I'm going to have to just disagree. Because we
are to keep the commands of Christ. Why would He say, teach them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. If that
wasn't for us to keep. So, it isn't again, it isn't
about tradition, it isn't about legalism, it's about proper service
as Christ has commanded us. Verse 20, here again is the phrase. When ye come together therefore
into one place. See the church is a gathered
assembly that gathers in one place. This is not to eat the
Lord's supper. What they're doing wasn't that.
For in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper,
and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not
houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God? See, whenever someone doesn't
want to follow the ordinances and the commands of Christ as
He laid down, then it isn't really a despising of that you know,
particular person or pastor, it's a despising of the Church
of God. You despise the Church of God. You're despising that
gathered assembly that Christ has gathered. You're despising
His body. Whenever you say, well, to me
it don't matter, it don't matter. These things aren't important.
Well, it was important enough that Christ said, teach them
to observe all the things that I've told you or commanded you.
It mattered enough that he told those apostles to teach that
to every church. It was important enough that
Paul told the Corinthian church, sent Timothy again in person
to tell them, and then followed up with a letter to tell them
again. There seems to be some importance in following the commands
of Christ and serving Him. He says, and shame them that have not.
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I
praise you not. For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given
thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat, this is My body which
is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me."
This do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner, he took
the cup. When he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as often as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes."
Now the Lord gave them a specific way to do this ordinance. And He said, in this way, In
this way, you do show the Lord's death until He comes. This is
how you remember me. But yet there are people out
there doing it any way that they want and just saying, it doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter. Well, it does
because Christ said specific breads, specific cup, specific
way among specific people. And He wants it done that way.
Why? Because there is symbols and
then there is the truth behind the symbols. Just as in the Old
Testament. They had to bring certain animals
because they had certain meanings. They had to follow certain guidelines. Why? Because there were certain
things. That Ark of the Covenant had to be made a certain way.
Why? Because it represented something. And that type had to be a perfect
symbol for the anti-type. That's why He'd give it. And
in the ordinances of the Lord's table, or excuse me, in the elements
of the Lord's table, He specifically at a specific time. Remember,
Jesus didn't just off the cuff do all this stuff. Everything
was determined before the foundation of the world and had its time.
Jesus' death came at the exact time that it was supposed to
be. At the exact hour. He died at the exact hour that
in the Old Testament, that the Day of Atonement lamb was sacrificed. Ain't that amazing? That in all
the free willingness of evil men in killing Christ, that they, the Romans, crucified,
hung Jesus on that cross, and he didn't die, he didn't die,
he didn't die, he didn't die, he didn't die, then all of a
sudden, he, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? He gave up
the ghost, and he died at a specific hour, and that specific hour
coincided with the exact hour that the atonement sacrifice
was made in the Old Testament for all of his people. Everything was on time for Christ.
He picked the Passover. He picked what was in the Passover. See, there was lamb there. There
was roasted lamb at the Passover. He could have said, here, break
this meat. This is my flesh broken for you.
This do in remembrance of me. He could have had a lamb and
broke that lamb apart and said, here, and that probably would
have actually been a more vivid picture. But he didn't. He didn't take the lamb. He didn't
take the sop. He took the unleavened bread
and he said, break this and eat it. They had several different
cups that they drank, but he waited until the third cup to
drink, and he drank it because there was specific meaning behind
it. See, everything was ordered. Everything was detailed. And
Christ said, do this in remembrance of me because in this, this is
how I want you to do it. Why? Because there is meaning
behind what I'm telling you to do. There is symbolic meaning
behind this. The bread represents my flesh,
and the unleavened bread represents my impeccability, my perfection. The wine represents my blood,
perfect blood, not human blood, but divine blood. Only the unleavened
bread and the wine, alcoholic wine, by the way, because grape
juice has leaven in it, can represent and picture the body and the
blood of Jesus Christ. That's why he picked those two
things at that time. And so Paul says, for as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the
Lord's death till he comes. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. So there's
a certain way to do it. And if it's done, not in that
way, then there is repercussions. But we'll stop, take a break
real quick here, and then we'll continue on looking at these
things in verse 28.